Select Other Tool

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Have you ever heard of the ‘Select Other’ tool in SOLIDWORKS? You may have forgotten about this useful little tool that will help save time on your selections. ‘Select Other’ is a tool that can be used to select entities that are hidden by other geometry within a part or assembly document, without having to reorient it!

Selecting the bottom, inner face of this ratchet head without using the mouse or mouse gestures to rotate it has never been easier. All we’ll need to do is right-click on the face that is blocking the inner face (highlighted in orange), and click ‘Select Other’ from the toolbar that appears.

The face closest to the cursor will be hidden, and any faces that are behind the hidden face will be selectable by simply clicking on the name of the face from the list that pops up. In this case, there is only one face or entity behind the now hidden face, which is why there is only one selection to choose from within the window. Additionally, we can still left-click within the graphics area and select the entities that way as well.

The same can be done for this hand truck assembly example. If we wanted to select the tire of the hand truck, just right-click on the entities blocking the tire and choose the ‘Select Other’ tool. The ‘Select Other’ tool window emerges and the entities that we’d like to choose from can be selected.

Also, right-clicking on the model will hide more faces and reveal other entities behind it to be shown, and ease the pain set on by not having to rotate the assembly. This is just another way to prevent you from ever using your middle mouse button again!

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CADimensions

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